1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to ovens in general, and in particular to a method for cooking food in an oven.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional ovens generally use a temperature feedback mechanism to maintain oven temperature relatively constant at a set temperature. The temperature feedback mechanism turns on the heating source when the oven temperature is less than the set temperature, and turns off the heating source when the oven temperature is greater than the set temperature. Basically, the only information that matters is the oven temperature, and the only action taken based on the oven temperature information is to turn the heating source on or off in order to maintain the oven temperature as close to the set temperature as possible.
Once the oven temperature of an oven has reached a steady state (i.e., the set temperature), a user can at any time put a food item into the oven. The amount of time the food item should be in the oven may be determined by the internal temperature at which the food item has reached. Once the food item has reached a predetermined internal temperature, the food item is considered to be “done.” In other words, for conventional ovens, once the oven has achieved the set temperature, the only other variable is time. A food item is considered to be done when it has been placed in the oven operating at the proper set temperature for the desired amount of time.
Rapid-cook ovens operate almost entirely based on time. Once a rapid-cook oven has reached its set temperature, for example, if a user pushes a button on a user interface that says “pepperoni pizza,” a set of previously entered cooking instructions that correspond to that selected food item are executed. Those cooking instructions may include: cook food item with a microwave on 50% power and a blower on 100% power for 1.5 minutes, and then continue to cook food item with the microwave on 100% power and the blower on 80% power for another 3 minutes. At the end of the 4.5 minute period, the cooking of the food item is deemed to have been completed because the allotted cooking time at the desired temperature and cook profile conditions have been met.
The present invention provides an improved method for cooking food items in an oven.